Horror Story Hallowseed is a first-person psychological horror game straight out of the imagination of one man: Jeff Winner. The latter, fan of horror, entered the industry with an idea in mind, that of offering a whole horrific license inspired by what he was able to read, see or “devour” in this field throughout his life. life, as proudly indicated to us by a first message at the launch of the game: Conjuring, Insidious and the Exorcism of Emily Rose in mind. But are good ideas and the willingness to get closer to the very best in modern cinematic horror enough?
Do you have a knee problem buddy?
Hallowseed is the first part of a larger project that we are already being sold in the game’s sheet on Steam. A first section that we will cross between 2 and 5 hours, depending on your ability to find yourself in this labyrinth of winding enigmas dotted with jumpscares at each turn.
We follow the misadventures of a poor man gone wild camping with a bunch of friends, but for some unknown reason (since we just hear the dialogues on a black background), the group finds itself separated. We, poor nameless guy, we are in the middle of a mine, itself in the heart of a forest, in total darkness.
While we could start to get used to it from the start, the tension is defused by what I now call “Amnesia syndrome”, namely a character who makes crates with great blows of Hum! Ah! Oh! Hi Han! (no there, I’m kidding), who talks too much to tell what is happening (Amnesia Rebirth hello) and above all, who advances with two tensions. Namely that our movements will only be natural outside, in other words, 20% of the game, for the rest, it is slowly. And if the fact of not being able to move correctly could have been an asset, it is above all a problem here in view of the incredible number of back and forth and “exploration” sequences that we are asked to type.
On the other hand, this slowness is perhaps also due to the smallness of the environments that we will have to cross (mines, a forest and a creepy house). Not very big and very corridor, the latter nevertheless offer a perfectly controlled atmosphere, grayish, dirty and oppressive, which will compensate for the lack of originality of the places chosen but also of their level design. Still, technically the software is rather clean, without being transcendent, and will run on all bikes.
A melting pot of what is being done everywhere, but more nanardesque
Tchou Tchou the ghost train
Close, very close to the walking simulator, Horror Story Hallowseed offers the most refined gameplay. Aside from lighting candles or your phone, collecting items and opening drawers, there’s not much to eat. The app may be proud of it by announcing having a good dose of creepy events, randomly generated according to our actions, I did not have the feeling of having had so many. Unlike a Face, for example, which succeeded perfectly in this aspect, there, we eat scripts that go so far as to focus the camera on the jumpscare, screamer or disruptive element to be sure to have effect.
So yes, we jump, clearly – when we yell in your ears, it’s difficult to do otherwise – but finally do we feel tension, or any discomfort? Well no. After the first 30 minutes, we know what to expect and the element of surprise has almost disappeared. Despite everything, yes, as said above, the jumpscares obviously work well and we will jump out of our seat, but that’s about it.
It’s a shame because the title is full of good ideas, like certain auditory hallucinations (very good sound design by the way), or this sequence with the Ouija, and its narrative framework, classic as possible, which matches rather well with the genre and lets itself go like a good B series. , several endings are available, and although they are cheap, they make coffee.
The game would have clearly gained by working more on its atmosphere, the suggestion and especially by stopping wanting to force us to be afraid by focusing our gaze everywhere. In addition, going back and forth in a house, trying to open all the doors as soon as an event is triggered, is not intuitive and ambient noises end up becoming common to us. Not to mention that running through long trails, chased by weird critters without really knowing what to do, is nothing transcendent either.
We can see that the game tries by all means to use and abuse clichés of the genre, but it never puts his personality or even an ounce of finesse.. In the end we end up with a melting pot of what is being done everywhere, but more nanardesque.
